a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of folding hinges designed for use in conjunction with devices that use poles or similar means and where it is desirable to collapse the same. More specifically, this device relates to devices that are used in conjunction with ski poles, canes, walking sticks, or wading staffs used by fishermen. This invention consists of a self-locking hinge that can be operated with one hand making use of the poles and related devices convenient.
b) Description of the Related Art
The present invention is directed towards folding or collapsible hinges that are designed for use in conjunction with poles or similar devices. Presently, there are different folding hinge designs that can be used in conjunction with poles or other devices to create collapsible frames. However, none of the prior art incorporates all of the novel aspects of the present invention of a simple, inexpensive, easy to manufacture, strong self locking hinge that most importantly can be operated with one hand.
A common collapsible hinge assembly in the prior art uses spring loaded poles that facilitate both the opening of the hinge assembly and the maintaining of the hinge assembly in a closed position. Some devices do not use an actual hinge at the connection point but rely on the spring loaded, or bungee cord loaded, poles and a sleeve type arrangement where one pole possess a sleeve designed to slide over a second pole. This arrangement is common with poles used for wading staffs, to support pop up camping tents and other similar devices. The main draw back is that two hands are required to assemble the two sections of the pole due to the combination of the internal spring mechanism and the overlapping sleeve arrangement. Other devices have an internal spring loaded means, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,490, but have many internal parts that make is complicated and costly to manufacture. The present invention has only three basic parts and can be simply manufactured and placed inside a pole without any internal components.
Some devices use sleeves to facilitate the locking means such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,283. This device is similar to the present invention, as it is used in conjunction with ski poles. The draw back with this device is that one needs to use two hands to operate the device, as one would have to hold the poles in place while they slide the sleeve over the hinge portion. Other devices do not use springs or sleeves, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,964, but use the pole material to create the spring action. This device falls from the shortcoming of not yielding a true end-to-end 180-degree connection desirable for walking sticks and canes. Furthermore, this hinge device could be disengaged if one where to apply force to underside of the hinge, a concept not desirable to wading staffs, walking sticks and canes.
Still other devices utilize a latch mechanism as the present invention. One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 96,777, a device specifically designed for use with an umbrella. This device does not create a straight 180-degree orientation and does not easily collapse down for easy storage. Further, it does not have an offset hinge connection as the present invention preventing the device from being collapsed to a compact sized for easy transport and storage.
Some devices possess an offset hinge pivot connection. An example can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,660 and its cited prior art references contained within the patent. All of these references suffer from the common problems of not being able to be engaged or disengaged with one hand. The cited reference itself does have a push button to release the mechanism but in doing so one's own finger will be holding the press plate of the opposite hinge portion preventing the same from disengaging from the main hinge portion, thereby preventing the device from being a one hand operation.
In sum, the present invention overcomes all the shortcomings of the prior art and discloses a simple self locking hinge. The design is simple to manufacture, can come in a variety of shapes given the application requirements and has few parts making it cost effect. The hinge can be simply opened and closed with one hand while creating a strong axial connection between two poles that is sufficient to be used as a wading staff, walking stick, cane or other device.